Lettering guide



Sept. 17, 1957 F. DUBAS LETTERING cums Filed June 4, 1951 ill- IN VENTOR.

WZM'

2,806,299 Patented Sept. 17, 1957 LETTERING GUIDE Henry F. Dubas, NorthJudson, Ind.

Application June 4, 1951, Serial No. 229,815

6 Claims. (CI. 3537) My invention relates to a drafting instrument andmore particularly to an improved lettering guide for draftsmen and thelike.

In making engineering or working drawings a substantial part of the timeis consumed in lettering the notes thereon. The usual procedure is topencil horizontal parallel guide lines on the sheet the desired distanceapart and draw the letters thereon and therebetwecn. It also isnecessary for most draftsmen to pencil either slanting or verticaldirection lines" across the said horizontal lines as an aid in keepingthe lettering uniform, but since extra time is consumed in drawing theseadditional guide lines they are in many cases left out and as a resultthe lettering becomes poorly executed and many otherwise good drawingsare given a careless appearance. Quite a number of instruments have beendeveloped for facilitating the drawing of the aforesaid guide lines, butwhether these instruments are used or not, it is obvious thatcomparatively much time is consumed in drawing the said guide lines and,more or less, erasing them out after they have served their purpose.

Practically all of the working drawings are now made on transparent orsemitransparent sheets, and conse quently some draftsmen have abolishedto a limited extent the drawing of pencil guide lines by placing a sheetof cross section paper under a drawing, but this practice has decideddrawbacks. The said cross section paper must be manipulated so that thehorizontal lines thereon are made parallel to the Tsquare orstraightedge and this requires patience and consumes time. Also, in manycases it becomes necessary to untape a part of the drawing before thecross section paper can be properly posi tioned thereunder. and then thelatter must be removed and the drawing retaped before work on thedrawing can be continued without interference.

It is, therefore, the primary object of my invention to provide animproved lettering guide which abolishes the drawing of pencil guidelines and the erasing thereof, and which is quick setting and selfparallelizing to a T-square or the like, so that valuable time may besaved when lettering notes on drawings.

Another object lies in providing a lettering guide of the fore goingcharacter which will aid in making either sloped, or vertical letteringuniform, so that notes on drawings will he neatly and properly executed.

A further object resides in providing a lettering guide of the foregoingcharacter which will make it possible to letter a substantially longnote consisting of many lines with only one quick setting of thelettering guide.

A still further object of my invention is to provide a lettering guideof the foregoing character which is durable, practical and very ease touse, one that is simple and inexpensive, to manufacture, and one whichcan be made of readily available material.

With these and other objects in view, my invention may be realized bythe novel construction. combinations and arrangements as will behereinafter more specifically described, claimed, and illustrated in theaccompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of one form of my improved lettering guideillustrating manner of using the same in conjunction with a drawing anda T-square;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary, top plan view of the letteringguide;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary, longitudinal section, on a magnified scale,looking in the direction of the arrows on the line 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary, top plan view of another form of my letteringguide;

Fig. 5 is a transverse section, on a larger scale, looking in thedirection of the arrows on line 55 of Fig. 4',

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 4 illustrating the manner of using thesame and Fig. 7 is a plan view of still another form of my letteringguide showing the manner of using the same.

Referring more in detail to the drawing and particularly to Fig. 2, it)indicates the blade" of the lettering guide upon which are formedsuitable elongated horizontal parallel guide lines ll, sloped guidelines 12, and vertical guide lines 13. The said blade 10 may be formedpreferably of a relatively light gauge flat sheet of opaque whiteplastic, or of metal, or of any suitable material. The said blade I0 isarranged horizontally and its upper and lower edges 8 and 9 arepreferably parallel. The said blade 10 is elongated but wide enough toaccommodate a sufiicient number of horizontal guide lines 11 which willmake it possible to letter a substantially long note consisting of manylines without resetting or shift ing the instrument. The said blade ispreferably smoothly finished and preferably white, and the guide linesthereon are preferably jet black so they may be plainly seen through thetransparent and semitransparent drawing sheets which are predominatelyused today. it is preferable that the blade 10 be fabricated of lightgauge material, not only for economic reasons, but so that it would beflexible and easily handled even in close quarters.

The head 14 of the lettering guide is substantially a fiat rectangularframe with one of its vertical sides removed. A vertical trunk or stem16 carries at its upper end a right-angled elongated arm 17. and asimilarly formed arm 18 at its lower end which underlies arm 17. Theouter edges 19 and 29 of said arms 17 and 18 will henceforth be known asguiding edges," and it is important to note that the effective portions(portions which contact a straightedge) of the said guiding edges 19 and20 are parallel in relation to each other. Centrally positioned in trunk16 and between arms 17 and 18 there may be a groove 15 into which isinserted one end of blade 10 which is immovably fixed therein by eithercement. rivets, or other suitable means. It is very important to havethe horizontal guide lines 11 on blade 10 parallel to guiding edges 19and 20. it must be noted that arms 17 and 18 are spaced :1 suitabledistance apart to form long and narrow gaps or openings 21 and 22 whenblade 10 is positioned therebetwen. The said gap; 21 and 22 have beenprovided so that arms 17 and 18 may he slid over a drawing sheet asshown in Fig. I so that blade 10 may be pushed in further under adrawing. thereby decreasing the overall length of the guide and makingit more compact. The head 14 may be formed preferably of a fiat plasticsheet, or it may be formed of metal. or any other suitable material. Acomplete lettering guide. head and blade, may be formed in one piecefrom a flat sheet of plastic, or any suitable material. and in thisevent a little heavier gauge of material is preferable so that arms 17and 18 will not creep under a T-square or straightedge. This instrumentmay also be formed, in its entirety, of molded plastic or other suitablematerial. One of the extending arms on head 14 may be eliminated,

but it is preferable to have an upper and a lower arm, 17 and 18,because it then makes it possible to use the reversed side of thelettering guide for a different size set of guide lines, therebyconsiderably increasing the usefulness of the instrument.

The simplicity of using my improved lettering guide is illustrated inFig. i. To letter a note, blade is merely pushed under a drawing towhere the note is wanted and simultaneously keeping the guiding edge ofhead 14 against the T-square, and simply lettering the note on the guidelines which are visible through the drawing sheet. Since horizontalguide lines 11 are parallel to guiding edges 19 and 20, it is obviousthat the said guide lines 11 will be parallel to the T-squarc wheneither edge 10 or 20 is placed against a T-square. The dotted outline ofthe lettering guide on the right side of Fig. 1 shows that this guidecan also be worked from the right side of a drawing, and since thisinstrument can be worked from either the left or right side of adrawing, it is obvious that it may he used on large size drawings aswell as small ones.

In Fig. 4 I have illustrated a simplified form of my invention, and inthis form 34 indicates the head which may be rectangular in form, andfrom one of the sides, centrally positioned, extends a horizontallyelongated blade upon which are formed guide lines 31, 32 and 33. Forreasons given hereinbefore the horizontal guide lines 31 must beparallel to guiding edges 35 and 36. It must be noted that blade 30 isnarrower than the height of head 34, or the distance between guidingedges 35 and 36, and the purpose of this is to keep the lower edge ofblade 30 a suitable distance away from the T-square when the guidingedge of head 34 is placed against the T-square. The said suitabledistance or gap just referred to is indicated by 39 in Fig. 6. The saidgap 39 is a very important factor because it provides room for thedrawing paper to rise from under a T-square to over the blade 30 withoutinterfering with the parallelization of the horizontal guide lines 31when the guiding edge of head 34 is placed squarely against a T-square.Incident ly, the said factor applies to all forms of this instrument.For instance, it will be noted that when the guiding edge of any form oflettering guide head or frame" is placed against a T-square the loweredge of the blade which carries the guide lines is, in all cases, asuitable distance away from the T-square and if an arm intervenes thenthe blade in the latter event is kept a suitable distance away from thesaid arm (see Figs. 2 and 7). The particular form of lettering guideshown in Fig. 4 may be formed of a fiat sheet of plastic, or of anyother suitable material and fabricated in one piece as shown. The head34 may also be made separately and the blade 30 attached thereto in anysuitable manner.

In Fig. 7 I have illustrated still another form of my in vention havinga blade upon which are formed the horizontal guide lines 51, slopedguide lines 52 and vertical guide lines 53. The said blade 50 isvertically disposed and is substantially a rectangle which is inclosedin a frame-like member 54 whose inside edges 55, 56 and 57 are kept asuitable distance from the blade 50 to provide sufficient room fordrawing paper to go over the blade 50 and under the frame 54 withoutbinding when the instrument is being set for use. The blade 50 issupported at the top of the frame 54 or suitably attached thereto. Theentire instrument may be formed of a relatively thin sheet of plastic orany suitable material in one piece as shown, or the frame 54 may be madeseparately of metal or other suitable material and the blade 50 fastenedat the top thereto in any suitable manner. The outside lower edge 58 offrame 54 is the guiding edge of this particular form of a letteringguide and it is important to note that the said guiding edge 58 isparallel to the horizontal guide lines 51. This particu-- lar form of mylettering guide is used vertically as shown in Fig. 7. The blade 50which carries the guide lines Ill is simply pushed under the top of adrawing sheet while frame 54 is kept on the drawing and guiding edge 58is placed against the T-square. This particular form of instrument canalso be worked upwardly from the lower edge of a drawing towards thelower edge of a T-square straightedge and may thusly be used on largedrawings as well as small ones.

It is to be understood that various elements may be substituted forthose herein illustrated and described and the structural design of thepresented forms may be varied without departing from the spirit of myinvention. Hence, while I have described my invention in its preferredembodiments, it is to be understood that the words which I have used aremerely words of illustration and not of limitation, and that changes maybe made without departing from the spirit of my invention.

I claim:

1. A lettering guide for lettering notes on transparent andsemi-transparent drawing sheets with the aid of a straightedge, saidlettering guide comprising, an elongated blade having elongatedhorizontal parallel guide lines, a head on said blade adjacent one endthereof and extending downwardly in the plane of the blade a distancebeyond the lower edge of the blade, said head at its lower edge beingformed into a straight guiding edge located a distance transverselybelow the lower edge of the blade and parallel to said horizontal guidelines, said lettering guide being self-contained and free of anyexterior fastening means, whereby it may be placed loosely with its saidstraight guiding edge against and parallel with the straightedge with aspace between the straightedge and the adjacent edge of the bladethrough which space the drawing sheet is adapted to pass upwardly frombelow the straightedge and over the upper surface of the blade so thatnotes may be lettered on the drawing sheet directly over the blade.

2. A lettering guide for lettering notes on transparent andsemi-transparent sheets of drawing paper, cloth and the like with theaid of a straightedge, said lettering guide comprising, an elongatedblade upon which are formed elongated horizontal parallel guide lines, ahead on one end of said blade, said head being fiat and of greater widththan the blade in a direction transversely of the blade, said headhaving a straight guiding edge positioned a substantial distance belowthe lower edge of the blade and parallel to said horizontal guide lines,said guiding edge being for placement against a straightedge with aspace between the straightedge and the adjacent edge of the bladethrough which space the drawing sheet is adapted to pass upwardly frombelow the straightedge and over the upper surface of the blade, wherebynotes may be lettered on the drawing sheet directly over the blade.

3. A lettering guide for lettering notes on transparent andsemi-transparent drawing sheets with the aid of a straightedge, saidlettering guide comprising, an elongated fiat horizontally disposedblade having horizontal parallel guide lines a head on said blade andhaving a horizontally disposed arm underlying the blad and spaced adistance away from the lower edge of the blade, said arm having anelongated bottom guiding edge parallel to said horizontal guide lines,said guiding edge being for placement against a straightedge so that adrawing sheet may be passed upwardly from below the straightedge andover the upper surface of the blade for enabling the lettering of noteson the drawing sheet directly over the blade.

4. A lettering guide as claimed in claim 3, in which the head also has ahorizontally disposed arm overlying the blade and spaced a distanceupwardly from the upper edge of the blade, said upper arm having on itsupper edge an elongated guiding edge parallel to said horizontal guidelines and said bottom guiding edge.

5. A lettering guide for lettering notes on transparent andsemi-transparent sheets of drawing paper, cloth and the like with theaid of a straightedge, said lettering guide comprising, an elongatedblade upon which are formed elongated horizontal parallel guide lines, ahead on one end of said blade, said head being flat and of greater widththan the blade in a direction transversely of the blade, said headhaving a straight guiding edge positioned a distance below the loweredge of the blade and parallel to said horizontal guide lines, saidguiding edge being for placement against a straightedge with a spacebetween the straightedge and the adjacent edge of the blade throughwhich space the drawing sheet is adapted to pass upwardly from below thestraightedge and over the upper surface of the blade, whereby notes maybe lettered on the drawing sheet directly over the blade, said head alsoextending upwardly and having a straight guiding edge on a higher levelin relation to the upper edge of the blade and parallel to saidhorizontal guide lines, whereby either of said guiding edges may beselectively placed against the straightedge.

6. A lettering guide for lettering notes on transparent andsemi-transparent drawing sheets, comprising, a longitudinally elongatedfiat blade having parallel guide lines extending longitudinally thereon,and parallel guide lines extending transversely thereon, a head on saidblade, said head being of greater width than the width of the blade andextending transversely beyond both of the side edges of the blade, eachof said transverse extensions of the head having an arm extending in adirection longitudinally of the blade and therealong, the inner edge ofeach of said arms being transversely spaced from the adjacent edge ofthe blade, said arms having outer straight edges parallel to each otherand to the longitudinally extending guide lines of the blade.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS435,051 Spencer Aug. 26, 1890 1,324,182 Spaull Dec. 9, 1919 1,351,534Perdue et a1 Aug. 31, 1920 2,016,985 Carlson Oct. 8, 1935

